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The Amazing Race traveled to Jordan for the first time in the show’s history in season 34 episode 5. Teams had to search for a fragment of spaceship debris on a film set and either solve a slide puzzle of Petra or transfer hay and water from a cistern to a market. And somehow, Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss made up a lot of ground in the fourth leg of The Amazing Race 34, confusing the audience as to how they did it.

Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss, who starred in 'The Amazing Race' Season 34 Episode 5 on CBS, film a confessional. Derek wears a light purple shirt, dark purple band around his neck, and glasses. Claire wears a purple long-sleeved shirt, purple bandana, and light purple baseball cap.
Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss | Photo: CBS

Claire and Derek miraculously gained ground in ‘The Amazing Race 34’ Episode 5

Derek and Claire finished leg three of The Amazing Race 34, the Megaleg in Italy, in seventh place. So since they were at the bottom of the pack, they began the next leg with the last group. Teams weren’t allowed to drive themselves, so the producers hired drivers for the Jordan portion of the race. And the racers got to pick their driver.

The first group departed at 8:00 a.m., and the last group, which included Derek and Claire, left at 8:30 a.m. The first challenge was the Roadblock at the film set. The Big Brother couple decided that Derek should complete this task, and he found the debris in record time. They left the Roadblock in sixth place. However, this is where they mysteriously jumped ahead of many teams.

The next time viewers saw Derek and Claire was at the Detour, where they were now in first place. Somehow, they got to the challenge before the six other teams ahead of them.

Derek and Claire chose to do the slide puzzle and finished the fourth leg in second place. Luis Colon and Michelle Burgos beat them in a foot race to the pit stop.

After the episode aired, many fans shared their bewilderment at how Derek and Claire gained ground in The Amazing Race 34. They wondered what had happened off-camera to warrant the duo’s comeback. Thankfully, Derek and Claire have answers for viewers.

The couple share their strategy for the fourth leg

Derek and Claire post episode recaps for The Amazing Race 34 on his YouTube channel. And the video for episode 5 explained how they made a comeback in Jordan.

“I’m always trying to figure out a slight edge at every point of the race,” Derek revealed. “So when they said, ‘Pick out a taxi driver,’ I was assessing all of them. And I mean, this is a little bit ageist, but I try to go for someone who’s a little bit younger because I felt like younger people would have less to lose in life. And he was like, ‘I would drive a little bit faster. Take a little bit sharper turns.’ Be a little more motivated if I told him this was a race for a million dollars.”

He added, “So that’s what I was trying to go for. And this one dude stuck out like a sore thumb.” Claire interjected, “Before anyone had chosen, they were all lined up. And you get to pick in the order that you go.”

“I picked him out immediately,” Derek said. “I remember telling Claire, ‘If this guy is still there by the time we get to pick, I want him.’ And miraculously, no one had picked him — I have no idea why! It was three of the same people, and one guy looked like he just came off a NASCAR. He had need for speed sunglasses … I swear, his shirt probably said Ferrari on it. He just looked like he could drive fast, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Derek and Claire shared that they used this strategy whenever they had to pick someone, whether a driver or an instructor, out in The Amazing Race 34. And it obviously worked in Jordan because the couple’s driver helped them get in front of other teams.

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Derek and Claire changed their Detour strategy in ‘The Amazing Race 34’ Episode 5

Picking a younger driver wasn’t the only strategy Derek and Claire used in leg four. They also switched things up for the Detour.

“Previously, we weren’t confident enough in ourselves yet,” Derek said. “When picking which Detour to do, I would want to defer to the one that was a more physical challenge because I knew that we could complete a physical challenge. And it would be a risk if we did a mental challenge. Coming into this leg, we said, ‘F*** Florence. F*** all those physical tasks we had to do. We have to play to our strengths. We’re not the physical team.'”

Claire added, “We just aren’t. Let’s let Michael and Marcus [Craig] do that. Let’s let some of these other more physical teams do that. But we are the nerds. We should be trusting our ability in these mental tasks.”

The Amazing Race 34 Episode 6 airs Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

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